Today, the South Korean company LG officially announced its suspension of the smartphone division, confirming that it has no intention of developing or issuing any new smartphones and its final exit from the competition in this market.
The company justified taking this step by saying that it would allow it to concentrate resources on developing growth areas such as electric vehicle components, connected devices, smart homes, robotics, artificial intelligence, and business-to-business solutions, as well as platforms and services.
LG’s decision was not very surprising, as press reports have spoken since last year that the company is studying all available options regarding the future of the company's phone division, including the possibility of selling it to third parties, and it had already started negotiations with major companies such as Vingroup of Vietnam and Volkswagen of Germany to buy this division of the company. These negotiations did not result in anything, which left the company with only one option to get rid of the heavy burden of this division, which cost the company accumulated losses since the second quarter of 2015, estimated at more than 4 billion dollars, which is shutting down the smartphone division in the company once and for all.
This decision only means that LG will not develop or release any new smartphones in the future, as for those previously released by the company, LG will continue to sell them worldwide until they run out of stock. The company also promises to do everything it can to continue providing after-sales services and to provide repair parts, and other accessories such as cases and protective films for its current phones, as well as to providing and sending security and quality stability updates for a period of time, Android 11 updates in addition to Android 12 update (after its release) will continue to be sent as scheduled for eligible devices. However, some of the company's applications, such as Qlens, will not work after the shutdown date of mobile business operations scheduled for July 31, while the basic functions of some applications like LG PC Suite and LG Mirror Drive will continue to operate after this date.